Subscribe
Follow Us
Even before she stepped into the league, WNBA commissioner Cathy Englebert has always been supportive of Caitlin Clark. The same can be said for Angel Reese.
After Englebert saw the two in the 2023 NCAA championship game, she instantly saw major potential for the WNBA. She saw the best rivalry the league has ever seen.
While Reese and Clark respect each other, the rivalry is real. After all, Reese's LSU squad defeated Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes in that game.
Still, Englebert elaborated more on why the two stars' rivalry can make such a big difference.
“When I came into the league, people watched sports for three basic reasons—rivalries, games of consequence, and household names,” Engelbert said.
“We didn’t have a lot of household names, even though we had amazing players back then—and still do beyond Caitlin and Angel.”
The Indiana Fever star has quickly become a household name, and for good reason. After all, Clark convincingly won the Rookie of the Year award.
However, the Chicago Sky forward had a fantastic year herself. Before she was injured, Reese set the all-time single-season rebounding record. For a rookie, that's beyond impressive.
The two players have made history in their unique ways, and it has amazed Englebert.
Cathy Englebert sees Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese's rivalry, fueling WNBA
Even though the rivalry has drawn historic numbers, they might not be for the right reasons. Plenty of the discourse around the WNBA involved racist, misogynistic, and homophobic comments.
“In women’s sports, sometimes it’s complicated by the social media vitriol, which we denounce,” Engelbert continued.
“It’s terrible what some of these players have to endure… the hatred, the vitriol, the misogyny, the homophobia, the racism—there’s no place for it in sport.”
Players like Brittney Griner spoke out about the comments she and other players faced on social media.
Still, in Englebert's eyes, numbers are numbers. People are watching the sport, thanks to Clark and Reese.
“We brought tens of millions of new people into our sport last year because this rivalry came out of college.”
The league will continue to build on the positive momentum, while weeding out the inappropriate and unnecessary comments. Those will only stunt the league's growth and make it based on solely social issues, instead of what's happening, on the court.
No matter what, Clark and Reese could be the league's first big rivalry. Englebert will do whatever she can to capitalize on it and make it a major selling point to people who don't follow the WNBA, yet follow the sport of basketball.
